Twelve Letters
by Blue Cichlid
Summary: When the Tyrells propose the secret betrothal between Sansa and Willas, they begin a correspondence. Canon compliant.


To Lady Sansa of House Stark, daughter of Winterfell,

My lady, it is with no small measure of pleasure that I received word from my grandmother and sister of your consent to a match between us. However, I find myself in the disconcerting position of writing to a woman who is both my wife-to-be and a stranger. I hope that you will forgive any awkwardness in this correspondence.

Of course, we are far from the first couple to be pledged in marriage with no knowledge of each other. I take heart in the knowledge that many long and happy unions have resulted from such matches. If what we hope comes to fruition, I will do my best to be a good husband to you.

Highgarden is famous for its beauty and I look forward to showing you my home. Whatever it is that you love, be it books, music, horses, we either have here or have the ability to acquire it for you. Most important, this is a place of safety where no one will harm or frighten you. I hope that you are able to find peace here.

Margaery says that she has told you of my injury, but I wish there to be no misunderstanding on this between us. Even as heir to Highgarden, there are those who mock me as a cripple. I am no famous warrior such as my brothers Garlan and Loras, nor will I ever commit great deeds on the battlefield. My wife can never hope to be crowned Queen of Love and Beauty at a tourney by her husband.

I know that you are young and beautiful and there was a time you were thought to be a future Queen, and I have no wish to take advantage of your unfortunate circumstances. My brother Garlan has arranged a method for us to correspond secretly. So if you do not wish to pursue this match any further, send a message by him. I promise you, the existence and contents of our letters known only to the three of us. I also assure you that any reluctance on your part shall not be met with any hostility, only understanding.

By my hand and seal, Willas of House Tyrell

* * *

To Willas of House Tyrell, Heir to Highgarden;

Your thoughtfulness in writing to me was overwhelming. Hopefully you will forgive any impropriety in my part in writing to you; I have neither Septa nor mother to advise me in my choice of words nor father or brother to speak on my behalf. If I offend, please attribute it to my youth and allow me your forbearance.

You and your family are so kind to make an offer to a traitor's daughter. I expect no consideration, but I have received so much from you sister and all your kin here at King's Landing. Lady Margaery has been so kind and gracious, and the ladies of your family have welcomed me into their society like one of their own.

As you must know, I have no dowry to bring into the match. Nor do I have the jewels or household items that a lady should bring into a marriage. However, [Section blotted with words written and crossed out] I am told that I am not ill to look upon. In addition, my mother gave my father three healthy sons as well as two daughters. I can sing and play music, I have the learning that is expected of a noble-born girl, and I have been called well-mannered. I believe I can perform the duties that might be expected of the wife of a great lord such as you will become.

I have been told that you are famous for breeding hounds, as well as horses. Might you have puppies at Highgarden? I will not bore you with a long, sad tale, but I had a direwolf I had raised from a pup who died on the road to King's Landing. I would take great joy in the presence of dogs.

I look forward to the day when I can meet you at Highgarden, Lord Willas.

Lady Sansa Stark.

* * *

Dear Lady Sansa,

If puppies are your heart's desire, Highgarden is well equipped to please you. There are puppies here beyond count. I have some of the finest hounds in Westeros, and litters are being born near every moon. As I write, three of my dogs are sitting around my feet, hoping that I will cease this scratching at paper, the purpose of which confounds them.

My sister and mother have written telling me of your beauty. From what I am told, to say you are no more than 'not ill to look upon' is far too modest. I am told that you resemble your mother Catelyn Tully. When I was a boy I saw your mother at many a tourney in the Reach and the Riverlands, and I have seen few women more beautiful. Although I was too young to know her well, she was reputed to be as gracious and kind as she was lovely. I am told you have inherited more than just your mother's beauty, but also her sweet nature.

I met your father and his brothers and sister once, when I was a very young boy. They had travelled south to attend the great tournament at Harrenhal. My leg had not yet been injured. I was an impressionable boy dreaming of knighthood and great deeds. Many days I slipped away from my minder to watch the jousters and their horses with other boys, your uncle Benjen among them. Your father was kind to the younger boys. No matter the errors he made in later life, he seemed to be a well-intentioned man who attempted to live honourably.

I am deeply sorry for your losses. Although I know it is small condolence, it is my hope that you will a new life at Highgarden. This is not a place of cruelty. Highgarden is a place of living and growing things, of vines and flowers, of litters of kittens and netted rooms of butterflies. You have known sadness since you left your home. I know that we are strangers, but in time, I hope you can be happy with me.

Willas

* * *

Dear Willas,

Thank you so much for your letter and for all your kindness. It is strange to think you knew my parents in their youth. Perhaps someday you will be able to meet my lady mother again. She would be glad to know that I might find a place of safety with a man of honour.

I last saw my mother the day I rode from the gates of Winterfell. Although it has been only a year and a bit, it feels like seasons have passed since that day. Like you, I dreamed of knights and tourneys, although at the time I left home I had seen few of the former and none of the latter. Life in the north is far simpler than the pageantry I have seen here. Still, my childhood was joyful. I was blessed with three brothers as well as a bastard half-brother. I was granted a sister too, although we exchanged more unkind words than endearments. I had friends, as well, the dearest of whom travelled to King's Landing with me, although she was taken away after my father's death and I do not know what befell her.

I do not know why I am writing of these things to you.

Your kin have been a great comfort to me – I feel as if I am a part of your family already. After my father died and my sister vanished from the keep, I had only the company of my maids and those were sent to me by my then-betrothed, the king. I so love passing afternoons with your sisters and cousins, although I am so unused to company that I have become shy.

I keep both the Old Gods and the new. The Godswood has been my refuge in the Red Keep, but I also give prayer to the Maiden to protect me and the Crone to guide my footsteps and my tongue. I think of Highgarden daily and long for the day when I am with you.

Yours, Sansa.

* * *

Dear Willas Tyrell,

By now you will have heard that I have been wed to Tyrion Lannister. I wish to thank you for your kindness to me in these last weeks; your letters have been a great comfort. [Words smudged.] Your kin have made it clear that any friendship I might have with your family will not survive my marriage. I will always think well of you for all your kind words.

Lady Sansa Stark Lannister.

* * *

Dear Lady Sansa,

I was deeply grieved to hear of your marriage and the manner in which it came about. I hope that you are able to find some measure of contentment. Although I do not know Tyrion Lannister well, my brother Garlan tells me that he has been ill served by rumour, and that at heart he is a worthier man than he may seem. Thank you for saying you will think well of me, although I feel I have done little to deserve your good wishes. Although all we had hoped did not come to pass, I will always think fondly of you.

Garlan has told me of the conduct of my sister and cousins towards you. Allow me to apologize to you on their behalf. There was no reason for them to cast you from their society with your marriage. Margaery is young and sometimes thoughtless. As you could maybe understand better than any, she is in a precarious position as the betrothed of the king, and she is at present very dependent on my grandmother for comfort and advice. Her heart is better than it may seem to you. I know from her letters that she is truly fond of you, even if it is not politic for her to demonstrate that affection.

I understand, perhaps, in some small measure, what you have experienced since your father's execution. When I was a boy I wanted nothing more than to be the greatest knight of my time. My instructors told me that I showed great promise in fighting and jousting. As a squire I won many a match, although in hindsight I realize that my opponents were often selected to allow my victories. I had as much skill as my brothers Loras and Garlan at their ages, I was considered comely and well-spoken, and I was the heir to Highgarden. Everyone I spoke to flattered me and I believed I had many true friends. As you can imagine, I was insufferable.

Then I had the accident. I rode in my first joust, full of pride in my skill and confident of a great victory. Minutes later I was on the ground, my leg shattered beyond repair, and my dreams of knighthood over forever. In the months that followed, I slowly regained some of my strength but I was never again able to walk freely and the pain has followed me to this day. I then learned how few of my boyhood companions were true friends. Many days I was alone but for my family. Even when I was able to assume some duties in administering the Reach, my father's bannermen pressured him to disinherit me for my brother Garlan. Great houses whom once suggested betrothals to their daughters withdrew their offers. Conversations would stop when I limped into the room.

In the years since my accident I have found that I have talents for diplomacy and administration I never suspected in my youth. I have found friendship and comfort in some of the most unexpected of people. Although you may be fearful and lonely now, in time I hope you will find the same. You will always be in my prayers.

Yours, Willas Tyrell

Postscript:

Dearest Sansa;

Word has just reached my ears of the loss you have suffered with the deaths of your mother and brother at the Twins. Their deaths were a terrible tragedy. Your brother was in rebellion against our king, but he was also a warrior and deserved to meet his end on the battlefield with steel in his hand. The loss of your mother, a gently-born woman whose main crime was to love men who made poor choices, is a matter for great sadness. I think of my own beloved mother, Lady Alerie, and grieve with you.

I cannot imagine what you are suffering. I wish there were words that could be folded up in a letter to take away your pain. I wish there was someone who could take you in their arms and give you comfort. We have never met, and you are the wife of another man, but I wish for the lost future in which I could have hoped to be that man.

I know this is foolish, but I wish that you might not be so alone in this time.

Willas

* * *

Dear Willas,

I was astonished when Lady Leonette passed me you letter in the Sept this morning. I did not expect to hear from you ever again. To receive the letter that you wrote, to hear all your kindness: it was overwhelming. I know it is improper, now that I belong to another man, but I felt compelled to respond.

I am so grateful for your words of condolence. My brother was a traitor and deserved his end. It is permissible, I hope, that I may mourn my lady mother.

I am not sure what I should wish for in my marriage. Nothing I was taught prepared me for this. It feels like there is a great gulf between us; I do not understand what my lord Tyrion wants of me or how to make him happy. Sometimes, when he is absent from our chambers, I pass the time by reading his books. He is clever, even more so than reputation says. He has texts on subjects I never heard of, and I struggle to understand them. Sometimes I would like to ask him, but he thinks me dull, and he has no interest in conversing with me. But he does not use me ill. He is as kind as he knows how.

People are cruel to him. I knew before we were wed that he was ugly in visage and not well-formed, but I did not know how much he was scorned in the court. It seems unjust. Although I know little of battle, I know that Stannis Baratheon would have taken King's Landing but for Tyrion. I know that he rode out into the fighting, even though he was not trained at arms. Is that not a matter which should have earned him respect?

I find it hard to imagine the life ahead of me, as Tyrion Lannister's wife. It seems unreal, like a dream. I know it is selfish of me to think this way, when so many people are suffering in this realm, but I am frightened. I do not know what my fate will be. Am I to spend the rest of my days haunting the Red Keep like a ghost?

I look over what I have written, and I wonder at myself that I would say these things to a man I have never met. But I have nowhere to say these things, no one to listen to me, so I set these lines to paper and send them to you.

Sansa

* * *

Dear Sansa,

I have struggled greatly over what to say to you to better your lot. I wish very much that I could find words that would help. But words are wind. I wish to be frank. Is there something I could do to help you?

I have access to certain resources, some of which would be obvious to you, others you might not be able to envision. My ability to act is limited by the needs of my kin and those who depend on me, and that list of people is long, those constraints significant. I cannot give you false hope on that front. But if there was something that I could do that would lessen your pain and sadness without compromising my own family's interests, please tell me and I will endeavour to do it if I can.

Willas

* * *

Dear Willas,

My husband has ridden out to meet Prince Doran of Dorne, who is visiting for your sister's wedding, and I seize this chance to write to you on a matter that has troubled me for many months. If it had not been for all your kindness and understanding over the past moons, and for your offer in your last letter, I would not dare to do this. I beg you to destroy this parchment once you have read it.

There is a young girl in great danger and desperately in need of your protection. That person is not myself, but your sister Margaery. I have told both her and your grandmother of the nature of the man she is to marry, and I have begged Margaery not to wed Joffrey. All to no avail. I think Margaery did not truly believe me. Now that I have been excluded from her company, I have lost my chance.

But I will take one last chance to warn someone who loves Margaery. Joffrey is cruel beyond anything you can imagine. I saw it first when we were travelling from Winterfell to King's Landing. This is a matter of great grief to me, but I will limit myself to telling you of Joffrey's actions.

While out riding, he and I came upon my young sister play-fighting with a lowborn boy. It was improper, but there was no harm in it. Arya was no more than a child of nine. Joffrey drew steel on the boy and cut him, for no crime other than following the lead of his lord's daughter. When my sister attempted to defend the boy, he turned on her, and it was only through her own courage that she was able to save herself great injury and disarm him. Later, she was brought before King Robert, and Joffrey lied to his father about what had transpired. In the end, my sister was spared by the King, but Joffrey took pleasure that his father then he ordered my own direwolf, whom I had raised from a pup, to be put to death.

I was a fool that I did not then fully understand the truth. I came to know what Joffrey was with great bitterness, when he ordered my father beheaded for treason. All know the tale. What may not be known is that Joffrey mistreated me after my father's death. He did not do so by his own hands. He ordered the Kingsguard to beat me. This happened many times, so many that I lost count, and none of the sworn knights refused his orders.

He took me to the parapets and forced me to look at my father's severed head.

The worst followed my brother Robb's victory at the battle of Oxcross. He had me brought to the training yard. I was beaten, again. He also ordered the Kingsguard to strip me of my gown, so that I was naked to the waist in front of most of the court. If Lord Tyrion had not intervened, earning the King's hatred, I do not know what would have happened to me.

All this occurred when I was his betrothed, promised to be his Queen.

This was not easy to write. Although many know part of what occurred, I have never spoken of it before. But I do so that you may understand the measure of the man your sister is to be wed to. I implore you, if you care for your sister as much as you say, as much as she believes you do, then do not allow this marriage to occur.

Sansa.

* * *

Grandmother, I want to change the plan. Wait for my next raven. Do nothing until you hear from me.

Willas

* * *

To Lord Willas Tyrell,

No doubt you will be surprised to hear from me. I know how King Joffrey died, and who was to take the blame.

Do not waste your time attempting to trace this letter. I am safe in a place you will never find me. You see, Lord Tyrell, I have found true friendship in at least one unexpected person. I was a fool to believe you, a stupid little fool, but I know better now. The most beautiful of rose bushes can hide spiders.

Lady Sansa Stark

* * *

Dear Sansa,

I know that you think you know the truth about me.

The truth is I deserve your censure, all that you have given me and more. But I swear to you, on my honour, I do not deserve it for the reasons you believe. After a life of caution, I have been a mad fool. I gambled for the first time, and I lost.

The truth is that if one can love a person one has never met, who is only words on a page, then I love you. I think I began to love you for your anger on behalf of your Lannister husband. I knew it for certain when you asked me to help my sister.

The truth is that I my grandmother and I never intended for Margaery to marry Joffrey, not once we were certain of his true nature. My silly, selfish sister is infinitely beloved to me. Grandmother and I do not allow members of our family to come to harm. We planned and executed Joffrey's death. But my grandmother was in King's Landing, and I was far away in Highgarden, held by a thousand threads of duty and obligation. I left the details to her.

The plan to have you carry the poison to the wedding was made between my grandmother and your friend. I knew nothing of it until long after it was done. But I am not innocent in the chain of events that lead suspicion to fall on you. After your last letter from King's Landing, I asked my grandmother to arrange for suspicion to fall on your husband Tyrion. I did not intend his death, but I did plan for him to be forced to go to the Night's Watch. Our family's influence would have protected you from suspicion. You would have been free to remarry. It was the best chance I could see for us to be together.

But although my grandmother and I share a common purpose, we do not always agree on our methods. She feared that the family had alienated you after your marriage to Tyrion. So, unbeknownst to me, she decided to continue to use you to carry the poison. She wanted a hold on you, lest you think to betray us. She did not foresee you fleeing from the Keep; grandmother had no idea of your intelligence or your courage.

But what now? I know where you are. Of course I know. But to reach out to you, to explain myself, would risk giving you evidence you could use against those I love. Now, you suspect, but you have nothing more than the word of a co-conspirator. You are angry, rightly so, and you are vulnerable. Someday you may fall into the hands of our enemies and your knowledge would be used against us.

I cannot send you this letter.

But I think of you every morning and every afternoon. I bring blooms to the Sept and pray for your safety. I pray that you may find happiness and peace, and a future where you can trust. I pray that the man you are with treats you as your gentle heart deserves.

This morning, one of my favourite coursing hounds whelped a litter. One of the puppies will be named Maiden, and although you do not know it, she is yours.

With all my heart, Willas


End file.
